


Partners

by captainofelos



Series: rina week [4]
Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Rina Week 2020 (HSM: The Series)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:28:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24188155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainofelos/pseuds/captainofelos
Summary: Ricky Bowen was Gina Porter’s enemy and Gina Porter was Ricky Bowen’s enemy. Whenever the two of them were in the same room they would always glare at each other and make comments about each other. But no matter how many insults were hurled at each other, the two of them didn’t care. They didn’t want the other to think they got under their skin.
Relationships: Ricky Bowen/Gina Porter, Ricky Bowen/Nini Salazar-Roberts
Series: rina week [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1742260
Comments: 1
Kudos: 23





	Partners

Ricky Bowen was Gina Porter’s enemy and Gina Porter was Ricky Bowen’s enemy. Whenever the two of them were in the same room they would always glare at each other and make comments about each other. But no matter how many insults were hurled at each other, the two of them didn’t care. They didn’t want the other to think they got under their skin.

They knew it was petty and childish, but no matter how many times Ashlyn or Big Red asked them to move on they couldn’t. The only thing the two of them cared about was the next insult they would hurl at each other. And yet even though the two of them always believed that they hated the other they always looked forward to seeing each other at lunch or at rehearsals for the musical.

“What?” Gina snapped as she felt someone tapping on her shoulder. “Sorry Gina.” Ashlyn said and Gina quickly turned around and apologized.

“Ash, I’m sorry, I thought that-”

“You thought I was Ricky. Lucky for all of us, Ricky is not here right now.” Ashlyn cuts Gina off and Gina responds with a smile and nods, putting on a fake smile so Ashlyn thinks she’s happy her least favourite person on the planet is away, and not that she’s mildly upset at the fact he’s gone.

“Anyways...what’s up Ash?”

“While, I was thinking that since EJ’s graduating-” Ashlyn starts to speak, and Gina tries to listen but her mind starts to wander away from EJ’s graduation to Ricky Bowen, and she starts to wonder where he was and how she was going to make fun of him for leaving for a week.

It turns out when Ricky is not at school to annoy Gina, her day goes by a lot slower. She has no one to annoy and make fun of, which makes her day at school uneventful. She figured it was because she was having a bad day not because she missed him; that would have been ridiculous.

Ricky was gone for a week when he finally came back to East High. When he walked into Mr. Mazzara’s biology class, Gina couldn’t help but form a small smile on her face but she tries to hide it before he notices and makes fun of her. She was too late because Ricky noticed and he smirked when she caught his eyes.

“Someone’s happy to see me.” He says as he makes his way to Gina.

“Only because I missed making fun of you.” Gina remarks making a face at Ricky.

“Sure you did.”  
“Anyway how’s Nini?” Gina asks a smirk forming on her face. “I know you were in Colorado visiting her and not in Chicago like you told Miss Jenn.”

“Fuck, who told you?” Ricky whispers, his relationship with Nini was complicated and he didn’t want any of their friends to know.

“I follow Nini on social media...” Gina couldn’t help but grin when she saw the look on his face-she was happy she was finally beating Ricky in this game.

Before Ricky could create a comeback, Mr. Mazzara started to explain a partner project that the class had to do. He explained that this project would be in pairs and that he would be selecting the pairs because the last time the students picked their partners Ricky and Big Red almost set the class on fire.

“Kourtney and Seb...” The two of them high fived each other, “Carlos and Big Red...” Mr Mazzara struggled to say Big Red because he hates the fact that he is legally required to call Big Red, Big Red. “Ricky you will be partnered with..” Gina is looking around the classroom to see whose left and doesn’t register when Mr. Mazarra says her name.

“I’m sorry Mr Mazzara could you repeat that?” Gina asks, wanting to clarify that her and her mortal enemy were partners. “Mr Bowen and Miss Porter you two are partners.” Mr Mazzara says with a clipped tone.

“Fuck.” Gina whispers under her breath and she turns to look at Ricky who is looking back at her with a wide smirk on his face and he has a look in his eyes that scares her.

Once Mr Mazzara is finished listing the partners and giving the instructions he tells the class to pair up and start working which is what Gina is afraid of. She wasn’t going to leave her seat, so after a few seconds Ricky gets up and sits beside her.

“Look I know you don’t want to be my partner and all but get over it, we need to do well. Think you’re up for a challenge?”

Gina just rolls her eyes in response and looks at the assignment sheet, to see what the two of them have to do.

“He wants this done by next Monday?” Ricky whispers his eyes widen in shock. Gina skims down to the end of the sheet and sees the due date. She quickly swears under her breath. “I guess we will be seeing a lot of each other in order to finish this?”

“I guess so.” There was a slight pause while the two of them figured out what to say next, they knew they would be spending a lot of time together outside of East High and Gina wasn’t going to lie. She was slightly excited at the idea of seeing Ricky outside of hallowed halls. “We should start tonight, come by Ashlyn’s tonight after rehearsal. She will be at Red’s and EJ will be at Carlos’s, we’ll have Ash’s house to ourselves.” As soon as the words left Gina’s lips she realized what she just did. She invited Ricky Bowen into her new home and the two of them will be by themselves. “Only if you want to, you don’t have to, we could always FaceTime-” Gina rambles on nervous at the idea of being alone with her sworn enemy.

“Gina it’s fine, I’ll drive us to Ashlyn’s after rehearsal.” Ricky reassures the girl, because if there is one thing that is Ricky Bowen’s kryptonite it’s a stressed out partner.

Once Miss Jenn had enough of practicing Beauty and the Beast, Ricky and Gina drive to the Caswell home in silence both nervous about what was to come.

Once they get past the awkward welcome into my home phase, the two of them settle in Gina’s room and start working on the assignment until Ricky gets up and goes downstairs.

He says he’ll be right back and Gina is left sitting on the floor of her room wondering if she did anything wrong. All they were doing was talking about an assignment there was no bickering, no sassy remarks, nothing. A few moments later, she hears the door close and footsteps come up the stairs. In comes Ricky holding a pizza box. 

“You ordered pizza?” Gina asks, bewilderment written all over her face.

“No, I bought an empty pizza box because I collect them.” He deadpanned which makes Gina roll her eyes in response and she gets up and grabs the pizza box and takes a slice.

The two of them work for a little bit longer eating and writing down ideas on how to slow down climate change, when Ricky leans back on the side of her bed and yawns.

“Please tell me I’m not the only one whose bored?” He asks, after watching Gina work for a minute.

“It’s not my ideal way to be spending the evening but it’s for school. We have to finish the assignment.”

“Alright, what would you be doing instead?”

“Probably watching tv.” Gina shrugs, curious as to why Ricky is suddenly interested in her daily life.

“So let’s watch tv then.” He exclaims and when he sees the look of uncertainty on Gina’s face, he flashes her his famous Bowen smile. “Gina we deserve a break, we can do more later.”

Right as Gina was about to agree with Ricky, her phone went off telling her she has a text.

Please tell me you haven’t killed Ricky yet.

Gina laughs and sends Ashlyn a shrugging emoji before putting her phone on silent and face down on the coffee table.

“What’s so funny?” Ricky asks curiously as he tries and fails to look at Gina’s phone before she sets it down.

“Oh, it was just Ashlyn being Ashlyn.” Gina tells Ricky, and he nods and the two of them get back into working on the assignment.

Ricky would come over to Gina’s everyday after school and the two of them were getting closer-closer to finishing the assignment and closer to each other. They still said their rude comments but they seemed nicer and Gina would sometimes find herself laughing at what Ricky would say.

By the time it was Friday, Gina was making more of an effort when Ricky came over, she would make sure her room is clean, she would dress nicer. Ricky on the other hand, would start to bring some of Gina’s favourite snacks, so they could eat while they work. They had gotten into a routine, and while neither one would admit it, they kinda liked the routine. After school, Gina decided to change outfits from her workout gear, to a crop top and a plaid skirt with a matching blazer, and her curly hair that is usually in a bun or ponytail, is let down. When Ricky sees her, he does a double take and a smile starts to form on his face.

“Wow, Gina, you look pretty today.”

“So what, I look ugly every other day Bowen?” Gina scoffs playfully, pretending to be hurt by his comment.

“No, that’s not what I-” He starts to explain himself but realizes that she was kidding. “Yeah, like the Beast for Beauty and the Beast.”

Gina pouts as Ricky places sour patch kids on the table in between the Bristol board and Gina’s computer. Gina lets out a deep sigh, gives Ricky a shy smile and begins to work, the two of them know that they are almost finished.

A few hours later, Gina jumps up and starts to celebrate.

“We are finally done!”

Ricky grins up at her happily but then a frown starts to appear on his face.

“I guess that means I don’t need to be here anymore.” He says and Ricky gets up and starts to pack his things and both Ricky and Gina seemed unhappy at the idea of him going home.

“You don’t have to go yet.” Gina blurts out, before she thinks about what to say. “Remember the first night, you wanted to take a break and watch Netflix.” Gina remembers smiling. “Why don’t we do it now.”  
“You serious?”

“I mean, we've got the time.”

Ricky against his better judgment nodded in agreement.

“Sure, why not, let’s celebrate finishing Mazzara’s stupid assignment.”

Gina grins and the two of them go downstairs and into the Caswell living room, she passes him the remote and tells him to pick any movie he wants and she goes into the kitchen and makes some popcorn and grabs some ice cream. She knew that they had some from EJ and the time Nini broke his heart.

As she makes her way back into the living room, juggling ice cream, popcorn and two spoons, she passes Ricky the popcorn, the only issue that they had was that they have to share the ice cream because it is one tub, which meant that Gina would need to sit right beside Ricky. Neither of them would admit this but they were excited to be sitting next to each other.

Ricky picked out the most boring movie Gina had ever seen and while he was invested in watching it, Gina was thinking about everything that happened between them. If you would have told Gina that last week she would be watching a movie with Ricky Bowen, sharing ice cream and sitting so close that their bodies were practically touching.

At what Gina believes is the halfway part of the film, Ricky puts his arm around the couch and Gina wishes that he would move his arm down so it would have been wrapped around her.

Gina later catches Ricky staring, but it wasn’t really a stare more like a gaze. And when their eyes met, neither one wanted to be the first to move. At this point the movie was long forgotten and the two of them just sat on Ashlyn’s couch staring into each other’s eyes. At least until Ricky clears his throat and stands up.

“I should be going, it’s late and I have to go home.”

“Ricky, I-”

“I have to go home.” He repeats, using a pathetic excuse to explain why he’s just getting up and leaving. He didn’t want to say that he was having conflicting feelings about Gina, and he didn’t want to involve Gina in figuring them out.

And so he just leaves, without saying goodbye, and leaving Gina standing in the middle of the living room, confusion written all over her face.

It’s now Monday and Gina has yet to hear from Ricky and it seems like the world has gone back to normal. She rides with Ashlyn and EJ to school, attends her classes, eats lunch with her friends...at least until fifth period biology with Mr. Mazzara. Gina won’t lie, she was nervous about seeing Ricky because of how Friday night ended, but what she didn’t know is that Ricky was feeling the exact same way.

Ricky spent all weekend trying to figure out his feelings for Gina and he decided after talking with Big Red that it was best to just forget about the entire week and to go back to the way things used to be.

Once Gina walks into Mazzara’s class and sits down, Ricky walks up to her. “Looks like Mazzara was impressed with my assignment.”

“Your assignment?” Gina repeats, disbelief written all over her face.

“Yea besides your bedroom being a place to work, you didn’t really do much.”

...The only issue with Ricky going back to the way things were was that he couldn’t remember how they were. Sure he wanted to start a fight with her so they could say their petty little insults and he would know nothing has changed. But this time he had gone too far, he wasn’t being playful, he was being rude.

“Seriously Bowen! You know I did my part on this project!” Gina yells, throwing her hands in the air in anger. As she could feel herself getting angrier at Ricky she decides to leave the classroom to cool off, but Ricky being Ricky follows her.

“You know what Ricky? I actually had fun last week. I was beginning to think that you weren’t as bad as I thought and it was weird not seeing you all weekend because I was used to seeing you at the Caswell home everyday. But just when I started to miss you, I remember how much of an ass you are and the feeling goes away.” Gina doesn’t realize but as she says this her voice is getting louder and louder and she is practically screaming at Ricky by the end.

“Look, Gina-” he started to explain himself but he took a step back and ran his fingers through his hair as he tried to think about what to say, his face had an annoyed expression on it. “I-” He lets out a frustrated groan and suddenly is standing right in front of Gina.

“You know what, fuck it.” He says all of the sudden and Gina watches as Ricky moves in, his hands gently grabbing her face as the two of them share a kiss. After what feels like forever, Gina pulls away and looks up at Ricky.

“You know I hate you right?” She whispers and he grins back at her.

“I know.”

“What about Nini?” Gina suddenly remembers all about his girlfriend who moved to Colorado.

“We broke up that week I visited.” And that’s all Gina needs to hear before she’s leaning up and kisses Ricky.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading, this is the longest fic i've written and it's one of my favourites


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